The Reading Challenge Group discussion

Placeholding for now.
In recent years I haven't been reading as many "books" as in past years so my minimal goals have seemed like giant tasks. My reading motivation or my reading "MOJO" just isn't there anymore.

For now I don't have a "goal" number set, but I will track what has been read as in years past.

Read This Year: 9



2021 Goal: ?

Past Challenges: 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014
Challenges Before Group: 2013 | 2012 | 2011

I hope you get your MOJO back!

Finished reading a book I started a few months back. It is my cross-over book for 2020 to 2021. Usually I will mark the book as being "read in..." both years but the book doesn't count to the year goal if you didn't finish it before 31 December.

Anyway the book was:

There Are No Goodbyes: Guidance and Comfort From Those Who Have Passed

It is also a "cross-over" book in the sense that it talks about the concept, belief, study of existence or "life" after death. Our life energy or "soul" continuing on after our physical death. I have been interested in this subject for many years. I think at first because I was looking for comfort from the age old fear of death. Anyway this book does sort of cover the subject "near death experience" (NDE) but is more so about the life work of the author as a holistic therapist. For the first part of the book (the first almost 100 pages) I was a little bored with it and also confused by some of it. I didn't quite understand where the author was taking things and wasn't quite sure what related to what. Then things picked up some and the second third of the book kept me interested enough to continue and eventually finish the book. This book is different from most after death books in that it doesn't have much of mention of NDEs and doesn't try to bring Religion into it. Many books in this genre eventually tilt toward Christian beliefs and talk about what "Heaven" is like. This one doesn't. I still enjoyed the book some, but it started too slow for me. I few years ago I might have stopped reading it. I did have some periods of many days or a couple of weeks without reading it. The years before I was on Goodreads I most definitely would have stopped reading it somewhere in the first 80some pages or sooner.

Finished my latest read. Still haven't set a goal for the year. Think this year I will just Free-Style it. Gives me no pressure on myself.


Phoebe Who?

Book number Whatever in the Charmed series. I really liked this one and like most of the others I have read the story could have been turned into a screenplay to be an episode of the television series. Part of the main plot of the adventure I thought they had touched on in the series at one time, but what I was thinking of was another series. Without giving too much away or having to mark this with Spoilers! (Sweetie) part of the plot involves the collecting of some magical amulets. As I said I thought there was an episode of the TV series that had something to do with the Sisters collecting some amulets (maybe there was one, I have forgotten details of some of the episodes), but the amulet collecting I had been thinking of was from the syndicated show DCs Legends of Tomorrow they had a series arc about collection some power amulets that when brought together increased their power just like the amulets in this book adventure. I think that is all I'll say about that. The characters were well written as the author has written a few of the other books in this series and may have been involved with the television series as some of the authors have been.

Sounds like a good plan!

Knocked off another Charmed book. What can I say I liked the original TV series and like the books. I still have about a dozen of the books from the series to obtain and many to still read. This is the latest one:


Mirror Image

This one I didn't like as much as the one I finished a few days ago, but still liked it enough to give it a 3 more like a 3.5 but not enough to give it a 4/5.

This one seemed to be more about fleshing out the main baddy than focusing on the adventure. That is probably why I wasn't as into it as the previous book I read.

At this particular moment in time I am not reading this series in their numerical order, but rather in a random order of the ones I still need to read. When I first started getting and reading the Charmed series I did read them in number/release order, and then had to skip the ones I didn't have until I read all the ones I had. Then I got one or two would read those, and a few months back got about a dozen at a time (in a few different "lots") and am now reading them in whatever random order. Somewhat deciding based on either title, or more so from the short synopsis on the back cover.

Finished reading a very fascinating book on the subject of UFOs and Alien Life. It is promoted as being based on factual recently (in relation to the publishing date of 2013) released government classified information.


Secret Journey to Planet Serpo: A True Story of Interplanetary Travel

This book is basically split into 3 sections; the first being a brief history of UFOs and the subject of "Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind" with extraterrestrial aliens. Particularly the "grey" aliens. This leads to the mention of a top secret US Military expedition to the home world of these aliens. The second section tells the story of the 12 men who traveled to the alien home world. A journey that was planned as part of an "exchange" program between the US and the Aliens. 12 Men from Earth traveled to their planet while one of their kind stayed on Earth. The journey was planned to be only 10 years but ended up lasting 13 years (1965-1978) due to miscommunication and the problem of synchronizing Earth's time system to the Alien's planet (which is part of a two star solar system.) The 3rd and final part gives detailed information of the equipment sent/used for the journey. The planning of the mission and the communications and visits with the aliens leading up to the mission and some other science type stuff.

I'm sure most people are very skeptical of everything associated with this book. Part of the first part history mentions all the experimentation the Nazis did during WWII and their secret Antarctica missions and super base there. Oh the book also mentions the Steven Speilberg movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and how the final scenes of the movie are incredibly close to the departure of the actual space mission.

Finished reading book number five which began as book number four. Took me a few sessions to get through it. Put it down for weeks on end a few times.


Homer & Langley

An interesting read. This is a fictional story based on the lives of brothers Homer and Langley College New Yorkers known for their compulsive hoarding. It is presented in the form of an autobiography by Homer. He was the more introverted brother who became blind in his youth. The story takes some liberties and extends thier lives by 40 to 50 years to get their take on some later cultural and historical events. It is a bit slow in places and I can see that some readers may quit reading and not finish it.

Finished another UFO book also by Len Kasten This one was:


The Secret History of Extraterrestrials: Advanced Technology and the Coming New Race

I both enjoyed this book and was at the same time a little disappointed in it. It offers a little bit of an insight into the UFO & WWII connection but not an awful lot. It was interesting in parts, but in others it dragged a bit with some of the background info and trying to fit some of the puzzle pieces together.

I gave it 3 out of 5 stars because some of it was interesting and fun to read. Some of it wasn't.

Finished Book number 8 for this year. Not sure if I'll start another or not. Maybe. So this recent read was:


Heaven Is Beautiful

My "review" is on the book's page now. I filled in the "what did you think of this book" section on my profile of this book. My copy of this book has a different cover, but all the ISBN numbering and edition info is correct other than a different cover image.

Just in time for the end of the year finished my 9th book of the year. Another Near Death Experience (NDE) or Out of Body Experience (OBE) book. What can I say I find them fascinating to read.
This one:

Application of Impossible Things: A Near Death Experience in Iraq

My copy has a different cover. I got it from Amazon and actually it is a replacement copy because the first copy that came had some damage on the cover so I did a return and replace. The replacement copy I read came like 2 days after I had submitted my "damage report" I sent the defective copy back either the day of or the day before I received the replacement.

Anyway the overall experience of the author is pretty typical of someone experiencing some mind blowing alternate dimensional stuff that someone who had some major traumatic event happen to them. In this case she was in a military vehicle that hit a buried IED bomb in Iraq circa 2007. The explanations that the author uses to try to relate her experience to the reader can be overwhelmingly too technical and philosophical. The rest the actual "events" were interesting.